Audio Conversation With Paul Harding

At Bloom this week, a spotlight on Pulitzer-Prize winner Paul Harding, whose second novel Enon has just been released. Plus a special treat: Joe Schuster speaks to Harding by phone in this two-part interview.

Sonya Chung
is author of the novels Long for This World (Scribner 2010) and The Loved Ones (Relegation Books 2016), which was a selection for Kirkus Best Fiction 2016, Indie Next List, Library Journal Best Indie Fiction, TNB Book Club, Buzzfeed Books Recommends, and Writer's Bone Best 30 Books 2016. She is founding editor of Bloom and teaches fiction writing at Skidmore College. Learn more about Sonya here.

Dracula’scastle is for sale and will go to the highest bidder who doesn’t mind having a few coffins in the basement. Although the vampire never actually lived in the Romanian castle, Queen Marie and Vlad the Impaler were previous tenants.

Last week, I told you about Rebecca Solnit’s essay “Eighty Books No Woman Should Read,” which is a tongue-in-cheek riff on Esquire’s “80 Books Every Man Must Read” list. Now, here’s a fascinating rebuttal from Electric Literature in which Sigal Samuel ponders what might be gained by reading sexist old white guys.

“What does each president’s fitness for parenthood reveal about his fitness to run our country?” Daniel JonesreviewsFirst Dads by Joshua Kendall, which takes an inside look at the fathers of our nation. You could also check out our own Janet Potter’sproject to read a biography of every sitting president.